Not too long ago I was planning a nursery. But as every parent knows, time flies by and soon enough you get yourself planning the kids college education instead. Sigh…

When we moved to our current house I was about 5 months pregnant. It was such a special time with the expectation of the new addition to our family of four plus our new house. We were experiencing lots of new beginnings, as well as a ton of design projects, like the nursery for the new baby. For my third pregnancy, we decided to surprise ourselves and not find out the sex of the baby. So, when I designed this gender neutral space, I used timeless artwork throughout the room and neutral colors. No blues or pinks. I also wanted this nursery to be a continuation of the design style of our new house. So I brought lots of white and rustic wood tones to this room just like we have throughout the rest of the house. But my main design goal for this space was to create a room that could be easily transformed from a nursery to a big boy bedroom.

Baby Victor came along on July 27, 2012. During a hot Summer night in 2014, while washing the dishes, I heard a loud thud sound and an instant cry coming from upstairs. Before the little guy turned 2, he had already managed to climb his way out of the crib. We gave it another try thinking that maybe it had been a lucky night when he managed to “escape”, but the very next night, we were faced with the same scenario. So out goes the crib and in comes the bed. I chose this IKEA bed because of its color, clean lines, and the bonus large drawers underneath it for the much-needed storage space. This bed is perfect for this room. We added some acrylic shelving next to the new bed for his favorite books plus a few new wall decals. A fun bedding from Dwell Studio plus some modern pillows and voila, we had a big boy bedroom for the “big” guy.

On the other side of the room, facing the crib and bed area, I designed a desk, dresser, and changing station. We custom made a desk using the same wood from the other side of the room and an IKEA’s old dresser that I used to have in my bedroom. Eliminating the changing pad when we were diaper free was all that was needed to have a full functioning desk for future homework sessions. Most of the decor stayed the same. How could someone ever get too grown up for a daily dose of Sharon Montrose’s gorgeous animal prints, right?

I adore his “big” boy room as much as I did his nursery.